Finally! I got access to HBO Go. I subscribed to HBO in January and have been waiting for this. Even if it's only beta, it's definitely better than nothing. Thanks guys. You guys rock as usual.
I can't watch MaxGo! Why?
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Finally! I got access to HBO Go. I subscribed to HBO in January and have been waiting for this. Even if it's only beta, it's definitely better than nothing. Thanks guys. You guys rock as usual.
I always check my speed and I'm at 1.03mb most of the time. By this weekend I should have the 3mb to try. I do notice the HBO is much better than the Max. I hooked up my new Dell and it makes no difference on the Max but HBO is noticeably better. I'm thinking when I get the 3mb I will be able to use Max. We shall see.
Great post - thanks for the tip! I still (amazingly) have the penny Cinemax and was able to log in and start using Maxgo. Nice bonus! 
When I created this thread to ask my question about MaxGo, I thought everyone knew about it and I was the one left in the cold. I guess I was wrong and most people are not aware of it, Eplix, and HBO-Go. All are available to us under beta (depending on what you subscribe to of course). I wonder why no one has talked about these things before? Well, going back to my OP, I still do not have my 3mb speed upgrade to try these streams out. I hope they will upgrade me next week. I'll report back as to the results if and when they get me up to speed.
So I decided to hookup my laptop to my HDTV via HDMI to see how the PQ would look on my TV. (I was using the Colin Quinn special) I have to say the PQ looked pretty good on my TV for internet streaming. (A little washed out in the background, but that was expected) I'm sure if my speed was closer to 3 mbps, the PQ would've been about on par with Dish's PQ. Besides that, I thought it was good so let me just give thanks to HBO/Max for creating HBO GO and Max GO
You said before you have a connection speed of 2.25mb. Mine is still at 1mb and I just called my ISP to ask why it has been a week and my request to upgrade to 3mb has not taken effect. They said they would get on it but I think the girl that took the order the first time messed up and forgot to put it in. I plan on hooking up my laptop to an A/V receiver via HDMI and then on to a projector via HDMI. I have a wireless transmitter to do this and also a wired one so I'm hoping I can stream these movies and watch them on my 106" screen. I can't now because 1mb is not fast enough. If and when they upgrade me to 3mb (which is the fastest they have out here in the sticks!), I'll report back on my results.
This is probably a dumb question but what equipment or configuration do I need to be able to stream these movies to my TV? Currently, my 622 is connected to my router wirelessly.
Your computer. HBOGO/MAXGO is not something that works over your 622, because it would be counter productive. The picture would pale in comparison to the SAT signal you already get.
That said, if you were somewhere else, you could connect your computer to a TV and watch. But overall, this service is meant to be able to watch on your computer.
That said, if you were somewhere else, you could connect your computer to a TV and watch. But overall, this service is meant to be able to watch on your computer.
If you want to use HBO/Max GO through the 622, I think you need the Logitech Revue with Google TV
Edit: Tampa8 beat me to it.
Edit: Tampa8 beat me to it.
I agree. I posted a little while ago that I was in the process of getting my connection speed increased from 1mb to 3mbps. No sooner did I make that post that I did in fact have the speed. It must have come in about the time I posted. I did several different speed tests and I am at least at 3mbps on each. First thing I did was play movies on my PC and it worked great. The PC is hard wired from my router but my laptop is on my wireless network. I took it to the living room (only 20 feet from the router) and did another speed test. Sure enough, 3mb. I hooked up my laptop to the projector and tried to play the MaxGo and HBOGo movies. No good at all. As bad as before I got the speed. I looked at the network speed for passing information and it is 18mpb, although it sometimes shows a max figure of 54mpbs. So, it appears that the network connection transfer rate is too slow to utilize the increased speed. I think that is what is wrong. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
it worked for me. you have to use the link above that takes you to the dish beta. if you go direct dish is not on the list.
This doesn't make sense to me. Connecting your laptop to a projector should not decrease your internet speed at all so something weird is definitely going on, but I'm not sure what the real problem is yet.
I wouldn't worry about the graphics card, most new computers are capable of playing what can be streamed. May want good RAM for multitasking while you watch the movies tho. Only thing you would mainly want to up your video card for is watching blu rays and games, there's other things but those are the 2 most common I could think of. new video cards are always fun tho and yea the GFX card would be pointless without the bandwidth to stream HD. THNX for the beta link though dude gonna sign up now
and yea the GFX card would be pointless without the bandwidth to stream HD. THNX for the beta link though dude gonna sign up nowYea, I don't understand it. My speed tests show I have 3mbp over to the wireless laptop. The laptop itself is only a year old and although it is an Emachine, it still should have the guts to stream properly. I'll just have to play with it further I guess and see where there might be some settings messed up but I'm not sure where to look. I have the same speed on my wireless laptop that I do with the hard wire connection on my PC. The PC now streams those Max and HBO (and Dish On Line) movies without a burp onto my monitor but there is something about going the HDMI route that is messing up my stream to the projector. It will be a trial and error thing this weekend!!
What are the specs for the laptop? And were you using the HDMI in dual monitor mode or mirror mode or as the only monitor (ie hdmi out active, and not the laptop screen)??
First ... dual monitor mode, means more ram has to be used (and 95% of the laptops out there use system memory for graphics memory, a few of the more pricey laptops have dedicated memory, but most people don't pay the increased price when they want a basic or average laptop) .... And in dual monitor mode, that means more memory has to be used.. main memory for video is generally a slower access method than dedicated video memory.
Next, Clone Mode ... may not use way more memory, but then you're possibly facing signal and buffer issues since one "monitor" might slow the other just for the sake of smooth re-draw performance.
The best way to go ... is to plug in the HDMI projector ... then turn off your internal LCD, and only use the HDMI, you should have a graphics option for this its not the same as just closing the lid on the laptop ... using only the HDMI out means that the graphics processing is dedicated solely to the hdmi output.
You're still not going to get a lightning fast HDMI response.. but it should be up there with the best you'll get without updates fixing any rouge software/firmware issues.
Also take note of what resolution you're in before HDMI .. you're probably in 1366x768 or less. And if you're in 1080i/p when you attach the HDMI you're going *up* in resolution, so this would also increase the ram used for video ... higher color depth also uses more memory .. etc.. I wouldn't be surprised if the real issue is that your system doesn't handle full 1080i/p very well. If it does 1366x768, then it should handle 720i/p as well as it does anything else..
and when you're talking about speeds.. try to make the distinction for what speed you're talking about... there's the speed of your wireless, the speed of your internet, and the stream rate of the video. Your stream rate will vary from site to site, and in general you can see that your network connection is as fast as it should be with a generic speed test ... like to speakeasy.net/speedtest
You shouldn't even use duplicate or extend. Just use projector only. When you connect your laptop to your projector (I'm assuming you're using Windows 7) Go to control panel, type "projector" in the search box on top right corner, click on "connect to a projector" and a rectangle window with 4 options should pop up. Click on "projector only" and the laptop monitor should shut off, but it will still keep the projector screen on.
These are great! I'll have to check what you two guys have said. I have a device which streams hd wireless from my laptop to my projector (although I use it mostly on my LCD in the bedroom). I have used it only for surfing the web and you can see it here: CompUSA.com | USB-AV2010 | Cables Unlimited USB-AV2010 Wireless Adapter. I don't have hdmi out of my laptop so I hook this transmitter to a usb port which sends the signal to the receiver connected via hdmi to the tv. The picture is perfect, but not for movies which still stutter and sometimes even stop for buffering.
Then I bought a cheapo of the same thing that is hard wired from the usb port to a connector that runs an hdmi cable to my A/V receiver, which in turn is a pass through to the projector. This is the device I really wanted to stream my movies with because it is 1080p capable: Mygica USB to 1080P Graphic Adapter for Video and Audio, US195A Graphic Adapter with Audio. It works good too for everything but movies which also stutter. I even hooked it up to my Dell PC Optiplex that I got just the other day but that did not help either. When I play the movies on the computer itself, I don't get nearly the stuttering on HBO that I get on MaxGo. I can not click on the HD in MaxGo anyway or it will just stop, so I'm stuck with SD. The 3mb speed increase has not helped and I think it is part of what you are all saying. These devices I have show "connect to projector" and I have tired every option - mirror, screen off, extend, split, and anything else they have available. Nothing helps. Maybe it is my graphics cards. The laptop and PC are not top of the line for sure but they are not old so I don't know. I will keep experimenting and see what happens.
Then I bought a cheapo of the same thing that is hard wired from the usb port to a connector that runs an hdmi cable to my A/V receiver, which in turn is a pass through to the projector. This is the device I really wanted to stream my movies with because it is 1080p capable: Mygica USB to 1080P Graphic Adapter for Video and Audio, US195A Graphic Adapter with Audio. It works good too for everything but movies which also stutter. I even hooked it up to my Dell PC Optiplex that I got just the other day but that did not help either. When I play the movies on the computer itself, I don't get nearly the stuttering on HBO that I get on MaxGo. I can not click on the HD in MaxGo anyway or it will just stop, so I'm stuck with SD. The 3mb speed increase has not helped and I think it is part of what you are all saying. These devices I have show "connect to projector" and I have tired every option - mirror, screen off, extend, split, and anything else they have available. Nothing helps. Maybe it is my graphics cards. The laptop and PC are not top of the line for sure but they are not old so I don't know. I will keep experimenting and see what happens.
LOL ... oh my does this just completely change the playing field..
Ok .. you're running a laptop to download via wireless the movie at near HD quality, and then trying to send it wireless (not sure if those are blutooth dongles or what wireless they do) between the laptop and the display port/adapter.
Things to take note ... looking at other reviews on other sites ... found a few people had problems with jittery/jumpy video if they seperated the the receiver and transmitter by more than 10 feet... one review on NewEgg said it was like an old first person shooter game at 3 frames per second when the transmitter & receiver were more than 3 to 4 feet apart.
The adapters themselves are converting/adapting video to go out the USB port .. this means more work on the PC's part, because now its rendering video, and re-compressing it to go out the USB dongle, etc..
So you could be having a resource problem ... if you just watch the video on your laptop.. and you don't have choppiness or slow video response, then most likely its the additional computational intensive steps to run the video across the usb adapter to get it to your display etc..
Intel had been working on the same technology ... and they've released a version 1 like product ... when I was at best buy a month ago, one of the sales guys said it was great for presentation stuff, but lousy at pure video, and that the Intel version of this also used standard wireless (a difference I guess from the USB dongles you've got) so that streaming wirelessly to the laptop, and then back out to the intel display adapter ... was even worse..
We all probably should have found out up front what type of connector you were using for this.. I'm sure most of us thought you had HDMI Out from your laptop .. which means the laptop was *designed* to do HD (at least 720 and maybe do 1080) but without the HDMI on board, your video chipset isn't designed to handle HD the same as laptops with HDMI are.... so basically maybe you're pushing the laptop to its limits trying to get HD.
Otherwise maybe its a distance thing for the two dongles (laptop to displayport distance)...
What you say TG2, makes a lot of sense and quite frankly, I have not even tried to watch movies on just the laptop screen to see what it looks like - it is always connected to one of these usb to hdmi things. My laptop screen is so small (at least to these plus 60 year old eyes) that it would be like watching a portable dvd player. That is why I wanted something that would shoot the movie stream onto a big projector screen. I'm a little into home theater with 1080p projector, Carada screen and lots of A/V stuff and just wanted to sort of expand my capabilities with movie streaming. And yes, I have placed the transmitter and receiver within seven feet of each other on the wireless. The one from Meritline is of course hard wired. Both give me the same "jerky" video, even in SD. Heck, if I had known all this I would just have purchased a media type computer with hdmi out and been done with it. Unfortunately, I am at the stage in life where when it comes to all this kind of technology, it is sort of a "learn as you go" experience. I think the bottom line is that I am trying to get five cups into a quart jar. My internet speed even at the upgraded 3mbps is simply not ideal for HD, but mostly my equipment is just not able to do what I want. Your explanation has showed me this clearly.
